For Kate

My beautiful friend Kate got married on Saturday. I couldn’t be there, but I love her so much that I wanted to write her a tribute.

Kate and I met in our senior year of college at Western Washington University in Bellingham. We were both creative writing majors, both recently returned from a semester studying abroad, and had both been recently dumped (seriously, screw those guys). I had just come back from Spain, while Kate had just come back from Nepal. How badass is that? While I was trying to decide where to drink a cerveza, Kate was sheltering at home because the Maoists had declared a curfew in Kathmandu. While I traveled to the Costa del Sol for a weekend in the sun, Kate trekked to Everest base camp. Needless to say, she’s way more hardcore than I am.

She’s also funny as hell. At my bachelorette party, she brought an all-white, one piece, belted snowsuit. She said it made her feel sexy. I wore it and discovered that she was right; it made me feel sexy, too. I was the sexiest skier on the mountain that weekend, thanks to Kate. She also accompanied me to multiple opening nights of the Twilight series (ironically, of course) and snuck mini bottles of champagne into the theater because those movies can only be laughed at with alcohol in hand.

What else can I say about Kate? She’s smart. She’s a good cook. She has amazing, enviable hair. She’s a seriously badass snowboarder. She is one of the coolest women you will ever meet. Kate is the type of person that you want to be happy because she should be happy. She deserves happiness, possibly because she brings so much happiness to others.

So, this is a tribute to Kate and the next phase of her happy, hilarious, badass life. Her husband is one lucky dude.